Rites of Passage
"Rites of Passage" is the sixteenth episode of Miami Vice's first season. The episode premiered on February 8, 1985 and introduced Pam Grier as NYPD Detective Valerie Gordon. Summary An old flame of Tubbs comes to Miami looking for her sister, who is caught up in the world of high-priced call girls. Plot On Miami Beach, Diane Gordon (Tery Ferman) is attracting a lot of attention, including that of a man named Lile (David Thornton), who offers her lunch and brings her to a party that night that his boss is putting on. Diane is introduced to David Traynor (John Turturro), who runs a modeling agency (actually a high class call-girl service) that is looking for fresh new talent, and that she could earn $10,000 per month. During this time, a hooker complains to Lile that she's not interested in a client. Later, the Vice squad finds that same hooker dead in the Miami River. Castillo wants the Traynor organization checked on. Switek and Zito are working on their "Bug Busters" van to check out a private party Traynor is having and use a hidden camera in their bug sprayer to turn up pictures of the guests. At OCB, Tubbs runs into Valerie Gordon (Pam Grier), an old friend and flame from Brooklyn (and a NYPD detective) who has been trying to locate her missing sister Diane for six months after she never came back from a night out with her friends in Chicago, tracking her trail to Miami, where she's been the past two weeks. Tubbs asked why she never called him, Valerie reminded Tubbs they didn't part on good terms. Switek and Zito do their bug sweep and catch numerous people on tape. Tubbs and Valerie spend the night getting reacquainted. The next morning at OCB, Valerie is viewing mug shots while Switek and Zito play their "inadmissible evidence". Castillo wants the folks on tape run down, even though most of them have built in diplomatic immunity. Valerie walks in and finds Diane on tape with a diplomat, Roberto Marquez, at the party. Diane spends her days with Lile and Traynor buying expensive clothes and doing drugs as a call girl, Meanwhile, Crockett, Tubbs and Valerie go to the consulate to see Marquez, who first cries diplomatic immunity and refuses to talk until Valerie explains that the girl that "likes to do the things you like to do" is her sister, and he provides info on his contact, and Crockett wants Marquez to call him to introduce a couple of guys (Burnett and Cooper) who love to party. Reluctantly, Marquez sets up the meet, and they go to the party. While Crockett tries to keep the girls at bay, Tubbs locates Diane and tries to convince her to leave quietly. When she refuses, Tubbs bodily removes her (with Crockett holding Lile at gunpoint) and they take her away (screaming, so much so that Valerie slaps Diane in the face to make her stop) to a rehabilitation center. At the center, Diane tells Valerie how she's making $1000 per night and her life is one big party. Valerie reminds her that she is being bought and sold at will for sex, but will always be there for her. Crockett wants Diane to testify against Traynor as she is a solid link to his organization, but Tubbs and Valerie feel she's been used enough and want to take her back to New York. Before leaving, Diane calls Traynor to tell him the news, Traynor gets her address and sends Lile to "take care of her" because if she goes to New York via the Miami D.A., he takes a third felony fall. While Tubbs and Valerie further rekindle their romance, Lile goes to the rehab center (under the premise of bringing someone flowers) and gives a sleeping Diane a fatal injection of cocaine. Traynor is being interrogated by Castillo, but Tubbs loses his cool and gets rough with Traynor to the point Castillo admonishes him. Valerie says she's going to take her sister back to New York, where she will meet her friend Billie. Tubbs and Crockett see her off at the airport. Castillo indicates the dead hooker has been identified as a Traynor call girl, and they are collecting information from the tape to track down other leads. Tubbs gets a call from Billie that Diane's body arrived, but Valerie didn't. They immediately head over to Traynor's place, where Valerie is knocking at the door, and when Lile sees her he opens fire, but Valerie incapacitates him with her return fire and immediately looks for Traynor. Just as Valerie prepares to shoot Traynor, Lile recovers from his wounds to take aim at her, but Crockett and Tubbs shoot Lile down just as Valerie kills Traynor. Valerie asks Crockett to Mirandize her. Cast *Don Johnson as Metro-Dade Detective James "Sonny" Crockett *Philip Michael Thomas as Metro-Dade Detective Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs *Saundra Santiago as Metro-Dade Detective Gina Calabrese *Michael Talbott as Metro-Dade Detective Stan Switek *John Diehl as Metro-Dade Detective Larry Zito *Olivia Brown as Metro-Dade Detective Trudy Joplin *Edward James Olmos as Metro-Dade Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo Guest Stars *Pam Grier as NYPD Detective Valerie Gordon *David Thornton as Lile *Tery Ferman as Diane Gordon *John Turturro as David Traynor Co-Starring *Mario Ernesto Sanchez as Roberto Marquez Notes * Pam Grier would return as Valerie in the Season 2 opener "The Prodigal Son". Though it appears Valerie was arrested after shooting both Lile and Traynor, she returns to her NYPD job like nothing happened. Crockett apparently pulled some strings to clear her name, as Valerie thanks him after the events of this episode. * When this episode originally aired, a voice-over during the closing credits announced that Vice fans should "stay tuned, because Miami Vice has been renewed for a second exciting season!". * When Traynor is roughly interrogated by Tubbs, Traynor's lawyer claims that the police have "opened themselves up to libel and assault." Actually, the line should read "slander and assault", because libel requires something printed that isn't true, not spoken. * Diplomats trying to use diplomatic immunity to protect themselves from their crimes came up again in the Season 4 episode "Baseballs of Death". * Much of Jan Hammer's music (especially in scenes involving Valerie) was used again in "The Prodigal Son". * There is a small error in the last scene at OCB. When Crockett asks Castillo if the dead hooker from the opening is connected to Traynor, he accidentally calls Castillo "Captain," instead of "Lieutenant." Music *"Come to Poppa" by Bob Seger (Opening sequence with Diane walking beach and Lile taking her to lunch) *"Waiting For You" by The Reds (Diane taken to first Traynor party) *"Beat Away" by The Reds (Switek and Zito "bugging" Traynor's second party) *"Change Your Ways" by Rockwell (Diane shopping for clothes and doing drugs) *"Till The End" by The Reds (Crockett and Tubbs attend Traynor's third party looking for Diane) *"I Want To Know What Love Is" by Foreigner (Diane is killed while Tubbs and Valerie enjoy each other's company) Quotes *"Maybe it needs some oil!" "Maybe it needs some pollen!" -- Switek and Zito working on their bug van *"Let's check out Switek's and Zito's new musical comedy, called Inadmissible Evidence!" -- Crockett to Valerie *"Enough loins in here to stock a meat locker!" -- Crockett at Traynor's party *"Diane... Diane is dead!" -- Crockett on car phone to Tubbs *"Read me my rights!" -- Valerie to Crockett after she kills Traynor Category:Miami Vice Season 1 Episodes